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I’m Bob Larson. As the technology for unmanned Aerial Systems, better known as drones, improves and the number of uses expands, folks in agriculture are taking notice and exploring more ways for drones to make their businesses more efficient.

With drone interest on the rise, the WSU Extension office in Prosser recently held a comprehensive workshop on everything from drone imaging, to integration and calibration, to FAA regulations.

Dr. Lav Khot says drones are already changing Agriculture …

KHOT … “There are several ag providers, you know, the crop consulting companies, they’re already having their staff getting trained to fly the drones and looking at data and all these things. So, yeah, just like previously, some companies would hire agronomists. Going forward, there will be one or two drone pilots and agronomists having their drone certification is what you’re going to see there.”

Dr. Khot says their training is a bargain

KHOT “There are some non-University, I’ll say industry, they’re offering some courses like just getting a Part 107 certification preparation and for that they charge a thousand dollars or more. So, having the university doing this is probably more, because we’re not doing this for profit, more cost effective to go through this training and get different aspects covered.”

Khot says it’s their way of moving the industry forward …

KHOT … “WSU is trying to stay ahead in the game and we are trying our best to have some extension education done in this area. We’ll be doing more workshops, not only about the hardware, but the software, the data analytics and all these aspects going forward.